It is known to include edible components in a beverage. For example, marshmallows are commonly added to hot chocolate when it is purchased in a café or restaurant. The marshmallows provide a further dimension of taste and mouthfeel to the beverage. In order to have the café-style drink at home, it is known to provide home-beverage kits comprising a dual sachet wherein the first sachet contains a beverage composition for forming a beverage and a second sachet includes an amount of marshmallows to be scattered over the beverage.
Beverage cartridges are well known in the art. Many modern domestic beverage machines dispense individual servings of a beverage directly into a drinking receptacle, and derive the beverage from a bulk supply of beverage ingredients or from individual packages of beverage ingredients such as pods, pads or cartridges. In the following specification such packages will be referenced by the general term cartridges. Machines which use such cartridges reduce the need for cleaning and can enable the user to make a selection of beverages such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate and the like. An example of one type of cartridge is described in EP-A-1440903. The beverages are formed from brewing, mixing, dissolving or suspending the beverage ingredients in a hot or cold aqueous medium. For example, for coffee beverages, heated water is forced through the cartridges under pressure to extract the aromatic constituents from the compacted coffee grounds contained therein. Where the coffee beverages are formed from roast and ground coffee, such as in WO20051079639, the roast and ground coffee is retained in the cartridge and does not itself form part of the final beverage.
The beverage composition material used as ingredients in these on-demand beverage cartridges are typically particulates or agglomerated powders to increase their solubility and/or extractability. Other beverage compositions might include ingredients in the form of a liquid medium, in which case the cartridge ingredients need to satisfy strict requirements due to processing demands. For example, the ingredients are desirably stable during in-packaging pasteurisation. Furthermore, their use in a cartridge mandates an extended shelf life.
There is, therefore, a desire for an on-demand beverage containing an additive capable of providing a further dimension of taste and mouthfeel to a beverage. However, known beverage additives are not suitable for use in a cartridge for a number of reasons. In particular, in order to be discernable within the beverage, the additives need to be of sufficient size. However, a marshmallow, for example, is too large to be dispensed through a conventional cartridge outlet. Cartridge outlets are typically small in order to provide an internal pressure to the cartridge to aid the dissolution or extraction of solid ingredients. Other problems include the unsuitability of these additives for the long term storage of cartridges, particularly in the presence of a moisture containing environment, such as when a liquid beverage component is included in the same cartridge. There is therefore a need for a shelf-stable and preferably heat-stable component that can imbue additional properties in specialty products including Lattes, cappuccinos or hot chocolate beverages.
EP1326500 describes an encapsulated food product comprising a gelatine-free hydrocolloid casing surrounding a liquid, soft or particulate centre. The primary food product contemplated in EP1326500 is a champagne flavoured fizzy sweet. EP1326500 does not disclose ingredients for dispensing from a beverage cartridge.
Therefore, while it is known to provide encased ingredients in food-stuffs, for example, to form sweets, where an outer layer can enhance shelf-life or to provide controlled release of flavours, the use of further layers has not been applied to tackling the above problems in respect of beverage additives.
There is therefore a desire for an improved cartridge for use in preparing a beverage, or at least a cartridge that will mitigate some of the problems associated with the prior art or provide a useful alternative thereto.